Art Palestine International is a New York-based cultural organization dedicated to Palestinian contemporary art. We collaborate with museums, galleries, and non-profits to produce art exhibitions, events, and publications.

This blog is a research tool that allows us to chart our research and invite others along on the journey.

Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti are perhaps best known for their installation at the 2003 Venice Biennale, “Stateless Nation.” For this work, the collaborative duo installed a number of large-scale passports – taller than a human – throughout the Giardini, interspersed among the pavilions of different states. While passports were issued by different authorities, the bearer’s place of birth was always listed as Palestine. The project reflected the wider political context of the Biennale, in which participating nations each organize their own pavilion. Director Francesco Bonami had hoped to include a Palestinian Pavilion in the Biennale, but exhibition regulations prohibit the inclusion of nations not recognized by Rome, and his plans were scuppered amid controversy.

For the next several posts, we will be running profiles of past projects by artists featured in the Palestine c/o Venice Pavilion. – ed.

Jawad al Malhi’s contribution to the 2009 Palestine c/o Venice Pavilion is hard to miss: a panoramic photograph, House #197, printed at monumental scale (pictured above). The image depicts the Shufhat Refugee camp in Jerusalem as seen from the neighbouring Israeli settlement. The image seems flattened as if taken with a telephoto lens; focal length emphasizes the distance between observer and observed.

The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind was established in 1936 to inspire wonder, discovery and creations, which provoke curiosity and deepen understanding of our natural and cultural world.

The clip above is a great scene from the 2002 film ‘Divine Intervention’ by Nazareth-born filmmaker Elia Suleiman. Suleiman was back this year with a new film, ‘The Time that Remains,’ which was the toast of Cannes this year and was name-checked as a contender for the Palme d’Or. Haneke ultimately clinched the top honor, but we haven’t seen the last of Suleiman’s film.

I recently had the chance to go see Annemarie Jacir’s first feature film, “Salt of this Sea” at Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film tells the story of a young woman, Soraya (Suheir Hammad), born and raised in Brooklyn to Palestinian refugee parents, and her return to her homeland to reclaim her heritage as well as a material inheritance, the holdings of her grandfather’s bank account, held by the bank since the 1948 war.

The UAE National had another great article this past weekend: a trend piece about how British collectors are increasingly interested in art from the Middle East, and Middle Eastern collectors are increasingly interested in British Orientalist art from centuries past. The fascination between East and West, the article suggests, is mutual and has a long history. Check out the article here; also have a look at Lauren’s recent post on this blog about Edward Said’s writing on Orientalism.

Posted by Michael Connor. Image: A Game of Chess, an 1879 painting by the American Edwin Lord Weeks. Courtesy Bonhams.

The /si:n/ festival of video art & performance opens tonight (May 19 2009) at 7.00pm at the A.M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah. The festival features performances, screenings and installations from now through Sunday. Here’s a link to the program, and the full schedule.

The schedule includes 1999 video work by Khalil Rabah, ‘My Body and Sole,’ that we haven’t seen; work by Taysir Batniji, Jumana Abboud and Shadi Habib Allah; some tantalizing looking screening programs; and the work pictured above: Raeda Saadeh’s Vacuum. You can watch the piece online here; we recommend it!